Facebook Tests Out A New Star-Rating System That Could Hurt Yelp

A
portrait of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in
Singapore.REUTERS/Edgar
Su

Facebook is testing out a system of publicly displaying
star-ratings on Pages, allowing users to rate between one to five
stars, according to a TechCrunch tip this morning

The Facebook "Like" has become confusing and
over-used as users Like more and more Pages for reasons ranging
from actually liking something, to expressing solidarity
or even disliking it. If a Page has a huge number of Likes, it
speaks more to how much people talk about it than how they
necessarily feel about it.

By adding a
public rating feature, Facebook would allow users to share more
concrete opinions or learn more about a business or restaurant.
It also would put Facebook more directly in competition with the
likes of Yelp and FourSquare.